Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Associated Press - Saturday, October 30, 2004
Elliott Sylvester, Associated Press Writer
In Botswana, voters do not select the president directly, but instead elect the National Assembly. The party with the most seats then elects the president. Results are expected on Sunday.
The Democratic Party has not lost an election since independence from Britain in 1966 and was expected to expected to maintain its firm majority in the country's 57-seat Parliament and then give Festus Mogae his second term as president.
Mogae's strongest rival was expected to be Otsweletse Moupo, a former public prosecutor and leader of the Botswana National Front. Mogae said the election would be an important vote of confidence in his government's leadership. Voters expressed fears fears that if the governing party were voted out, government AIDS treatment programs would be scrapped.
Botswana has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates. About 37 percent of its 1.7 million people have HIV. Life expectancy is 39 years, and the United Nations estimates that it could drop to 29 years by 2010.
"If this government changes maybe someone else will stop those programs," said a 28-year-old voter who gave only her first name, Maria. She said her sister and niece have HIV and depend on government clinics for medicine. "She (the sister) goes to a government clinic and gets the medicine she needs to stay healthy."
Other voters in the small south African country said they hoped the outcome would lift them out of poverty in a nation that is one of the world's largest diamond producers. Despite the wealth, 40 percent of the work force is jobless, according to independent observers. The government says the figure is 21 percent.
Gabriel Seeletso, secretary of the Independent Electoral Commission said, "everything has gone ell" with the only problem rain.
Some voters complained of long lines.
Kereeng Galesupelwe, 43, sat on the steps of a polling station at a dilapidated primary school on the capital's outskirts. She was among about 300 people waiting to vote.
"I must vote, even if it takes long because here we have no running water," she said. "I have to put buckets in a wheelbarrow to collect it." Her home has no electricity and the toilet pits are rarely emptied by the local council.
"I am voting for a change," the mother of three said. She only works twice a week as a gardener in the city. "We are barely getting by. We need things to improve."
Mogae's party won 54.3 percent of the vote and 33 Parliament seats in the last elections in 1999, when three quarters of the country's 460,000 registered voters turned out. About 500,000 registered for Satruday's elections. Expecting another victory for the ruling party this time, some said they saw little point in voting.
"I didn't vote in '99 because we knew then who would win and things were OK in the country," said 25-year-old student Jeffrey Molope. "I don't think I'll vote this year either because again we know who will win."
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